


Shadowing the Sun

by Imperfect



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-03-27 12:32:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19012978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imperfect/pseuds/Imperfect
Summary: A sentinel AU fic, where Kageyama is the guide torn between two sentinels. Or is he?Kunimi is his past. Hinata is his present. Who his future will be, nobody knows. Everyone wants to contribute to this mess, but actual help? Like it even exsists.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this chapter when I was supposed to be doing something productive. On a whim. So update will be...actually, I don't know if it even exists. I just love these Haikyuu characters :) Tags will be added with progress.

"Someday, we're gonna die together out here."

He had laughed at Kunimi's exhausted, but relieved, voice. The taller boy's affection vibrated through him. He could feel it run up his fingers, reaching right through his skin like it didn't exsist, as if they were a single person instead of two seperate, very different beings. His tired sentinel was in his arms, and he held his body, burning with a fever he would never understand, as the ear-splitting sound of a chopper drew closer and closer.

The helicopter enveloped them in its shadow, the hot atmosphere cooling down almost instantly. Sand swirled around them, rising with the wind made from the helicopter blades. Kunimi coughed. Dust stuck to his sweat-soaked forehead. Kageyama held onto him tightly as the other people came down. He knew they were going to take him away. They were only trainees yet, after all.

He allowed them to slip him out of his grasp. There wasn't anything else he could do. 

A flash of mint caught his gaze. A figure was standing just inside the helicopter, probably harnessed to the seat, so  _dangerously,_ that there was only one person he knew who would do it without a second thought. 

The newly-promoted Aobajohsai guide- Oikawa Tooru- was staring at him. Kageyama could practically feel his gaze, despite the distance between them, between the ground and the chopper. As he took Kunimi inside, Kageyama took a step forward. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.

He already knew who it was.

"You did well, Kageyama."

"Iwaizumi-san."

It wasn't like he was easily surprised, but Iwaizumi's touch was brief yet steady, as if not to startle him. He turned- and met a pair of worried dark eyes.

"That would have been a hard mission, even for us graduates. The fucking climate and all." Iwaizumi gestured to the near-visible heat waves rising over their height.

It  _was_ a difficult mission, but not so much with their abilities combined. Kunimi had practically watered the dry ground with their targets' blood. Now all that was left was some dark stains on the sand.

"Thank you, Iwaizumi-san." He answered.

Iwizumi didn't answer him again, instead choosing to sweep his eyes over Kageyama in his blue-and-bloodstained Kitagawa uniform. He waited for his senpai to speak. After a short silence, the older guide eventually asked him a question.

"Are you okay?"

Kageyama blinked. "Yes."

Iwaizumi sighed. "I mean, are you okay with your partner?"

 _With Kunimi._ "Absolutely." He was surprised at the amount of confidence in his voice.

Apparently, Iwaizumi was, too. "Well, it probably is if you say so." He muttered.

Kageyama nodded. "I'm perfectly suited to him. They couldn't find a better match for me, and we're completely fine with each other."

Iwaizumi coughed.  _Maybe because of the sand,_ Kageyama thought. He started reaching for his bundle of masks in his pack, before realizing that his backpack had been torn away in the storm just before. Before he got a chance to rummage in the smaller pack at his waist, Iwaizumi blurted out,

"Are you two going to bond?"

And then, he mumbled something that sounded like _shouldn't have said that._ Kageyama blinked again. It sounded like a perfectly legitimate question to him.

"I don't know yet. We're trainees, so we'll be paired after finishing the training at Kitagawa, won't we?"

"Well, that's right, but..." Iwaizumi paused. "What I meant was, well, if you two _want_ to- to do it. The binding, I mean."

"I haven't really thought about it." It had seemed so far off. He'd been training at Kitagawa for nearly three years now, and during all that time, Kunimi was the only one who hadn't been one of the stares following him around, the whispers behind his every step, the shadows disappearing around the corner when he turned around.

Well, not the only one. But close to it. He wasn't the type to care much about those sort of things, but still, it sometimes made him uncomfortable. Made him uneasy.

Made him feel alone.

He thought of the dark-haired boy. He was his friend, have always been his friend. If he was to become his partner forever, how would he feel? 

The warmth spreading through him answered all of his questions.

"Yes." Kageyama said, his decision evident in his voice. "If Kunimi wants it, I want to bond with him."

"Oh, well... I was afraid you might." Iwaizumi muttered. He sighed at the questioning look in Kageyama's eyes.

"Is it because of my duality?"

"Partly. We still don't know how you would react to being bonded with a sentinel. Neither do we know what would happen if you bonded with a guide."

His voice was practically swallowed up by the whirring kind of noise made by the helicopter. Kageyama glanced upwards, at the glare of the sun. A silhouette beckoned at them.

 

 

 

Iwaizumi turned his gaze upwards at the gratingly loud noise. Kageyama followed suit. Oikawa, still at the edge of the helicopter, made a gesture for them to come up. 

Iwaizumi gazed silently at his kouhai, holding onto the pole just as he was doing, with hands smaller than his curling tightly around it. He had once been rejected, then forcibly enrolled at the center; yet, he never seemed to resent the fact much.

 _Strange,_ Iwaizumi thought. If he had been dragged into this program, contrary to his wishes, forced to leave everything behind... He didn't know what he would have done, what kind of feelings he would have had towards this center.

Up at the bridge, Oikawa greeted them briskly. Iwaizumi dropped himself down onto the seat beside his. Particles of sand disappeared into the crevices between the materials. Ignoring Oikawa's disapproving stare, he closed his eyes- only to open them again at the sound of his partner bickering with his kouhai.

"Tobio-chan, how come you didn't catch up with me for even the teeniest-tiniest bit?"

"I'm younger than you are, Oikawa-san."

"You're _sixteen._ If you don't grow now, you're never going to."

"You're still growing, Oikawa-san, even though you're eighteen."

"I'm a special case. Look at Iwa-chan. He's just about the same height he was a year before- Argh!"

" _Shut up,_ Stupidkawa."

"What kind of nickname is _that?!_ "

" _You_ started it, Moronkawa."

" _Please_ don't do that!"

Hanamaki made an entrance, laughing all the while. "Kageyama, from now on, your senpai's name is Asskawa."

"Yes, Asskawa-san?"

" _Not you too, Tobio-chan!_ " Oikawa groaned, and buried his face in his hands. Hanamaki grinned as he slapped him on the back and sat down beside Kageyama.

"Great mission like always, Kageyama. Wiping out a squadron of soldiers with you two alone. _Fucking_  center system."

"Shut up, Matki." Oikawa warned.

"What? It's true." Hanamaki shrugged. "They've sent out _two trainees_ to kill 120, exactly-" He checked the chart he was holding. " _A hundred and twenty-two well-trained soldiers._ They're fucking crazy."

"We're sentinels and guides, Hanamaki. We can't be counted like normal trainees and soldiers." Iwaizumi countered.

"Maybe. But that doesn't really justify sending _him_ out on the field." Hanamaki nodded at Kageyama, who simply blinked and dipped his head when he met Iwaizumi's gaze. A sigh escaped his lips. He really was too young to be sent in and out of the battlefield like this.

"It's not like there's something we can do." He muttered a explanation, an excuse. "We got deployed in the frontlines when we were his age, too."

Even so, he knew it wasn't right.

The floor lurched, than rose with a loud roar. The screaming of the wind were cut off quickly as Oikawa slid the door shut. 

Hanamaki's gaze was steady. "And why did we try to break out from Kitagawa so many times?"

"It was just a joke-"

"We never organize a  _prank_  for over a year." Matsukawa interrupted Oikawa's protest. He stripped off his pilot's gloves as he entered the seats. It now felt stuffy with five people in the small space.  _Almost suffocating,_ Iwaizumi thought.

"Matsukawa-san!" Kageyama called out. "Is this on autopilot?"

"Yup, Kageyama, it's been a while." Matsukawa leaned down to ruffle the guide's dark hair. His eyes were twinkling at the pilot- though Iwaizumi didn't know the reason, he always seemed to like Matsukawa. Or pilots in general.

"Can I look at the pilot's seat?"

"Sure. Just after a minute. Seems like a debate is going on in here."

"Okay, thanks, Matsukawa-san."

He handed Kageyama a packet of cold milk as he squeezed past him. The younger murmured a thanks, and immediately took the the straw in his mouth.

"So you think sending sentinels and guides out there isn't _ethical_ enough?" Oikawa asked scornfully. "We're in a fucking _war._ It's not a situation to think about  _morality._ "

"Sure, and explain to me why the only underage soldiers sent out are sentinels and guides."

"I told you, we're different. From the average soldiers.  _Normal_ people."

"Doesn't mean we grow up more quickly than those normal people."

"Well, we have to." Iwaizumi added softly. He looked down at Kageyama in the front seat. His eyes had no trace of deceit, no hint of resentment. Contently sucking on the plastic straw, chewing the end.

Silence settled down among them. The grating noise of the huge machine continued on. After a moment, Matsukawa stood up, offering to take Kageyama to the pilot's seat. Iwaizumi watched Oikawa, who had fallen into a light sleep. Now Oikawa's head was snug in the nook between his sentinel's shoulder and the back of his seat.

Hanamaki offered him a cream puff. The pinkish-brown-haired engineer enjoyed the treat to an extent where Iwaizumi was worried about his blood turning into choux cream. Nevertheless, he took it and opened the rustling paper wrapping.

Matsukawa had Kageyama return to the seats just when the sentinel had folded up the now-empty paper. Iwaizumi nodded at the younger's words that they would be landing now. A hint of distress returned to the guide's face.  _Kunimi would be fine,_ He murmured. Although his expression didn't change, he seemed a bit less tense after that.

 _All passengers fasten your seat belts, if you don't want to end up in the cargo, that is._ Matsukawa's voice echoed through the speaker. Iwaizumi laughed and sat down. Oikawa woke up at his weight pressing on him. Kageyama sat down beside Hanamaki, and was given a cream puff.

A minute passed, and the chopper suddenly lurched. A shudder ran through its whole mechanical body. They were on the ground.

They were back at the center.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

A man was standing there when they reached the ground. Greyish-black hair and eyes of the same hue. Kageyama realized him as the advisor of the Aobajohsai team. What was his name? He tried to remember, but the name didn't come easily to a head dizzy with tiredness. Beside him, he heard the others' murmur of greeting.  
  
"Oikawa-kun, Iwaizumi-kun." He paused and gave a nod to the youngest member who stepped off the ride. "Kageyama-kun. Welcome back. Any serious injuries?"  
  
"How is Kunimi?" Kageyama asked at the same time Oikawa replied, "No, we're fine."  
  
Iwaizumi glared at both of them.   
  
"Kageyama has a few scratches, nothing serious, but I think someone should take a look at those."   
  
Then it came to him.  
  
Irihata Nobuteru.   
  
That was his name. Kageyama distinctly remembered wondering why he didn't seem to actually _advise_ anything, despite his status. Aobajohsai did manage themselves just fine, but still.  
  
Irihata gestured knowingly. "I'll take care of it. I trust you two aren't hurt?"   
  
They both nodded. "We were only in charge of picking them up. Everything was finished when we arrived there." Oikawa said.  
  
"All right. You're free to go." Irihata turned to Kageyama. "But I need to talk with you, Kageyama-kun. There's something we need to discuss."  
  
"Can I check on Kunimi first?"  
  
"He's- not available right now."   
  
The guide's expression hardened. "Tell me what happened to him."  
  
"That's no way to talk to your superior, Tobio-chan." Oikawa chided, but Irihata waved him away.  
  
"It's all right. I completely understand his urgency, and, Kageyama-kun," He turned back to address the bristling guide. "He's undergoing a surgery. It started about fifteen minutes ago, and it'll be over soon."  
  
Kageyama narrowed his eyes. "He _was_ a bit feverish, but I didn't think his injuries were that severe." _If it had been, I wouldn't have left him._ The unsaid words almost echoed in their wake.  
  
"We thought so, as well. But his fever wasn't due to ability overuse."  
  
"Of course not." He always made sure his partner wouldn't stray past his limits. And frankly, with Kageyama, limits were pushed to virtually non-exisistant levels.  
  
"He's been intoxiacted. A shard in his shoulder seems to be the reason, so they're getting it out, and sterilizing the wound."  
  
"He's been poisoned?" Kageyama's eyes darted to the building that was their headquarters. More specifically, the medical center inside.  
  
"Yes. We're curious who caused that injury to Kunimi-kun as well. Do you know who did it?"  
  
"There _was_ a sentinel in the squadron." Kageyama spoke. "But the ability was too weak, and it definitely wasn't poison."  
  
"What exactly did the ability do?"  
  
"Something about fire, so of course Kunimi extinguished it."  
  
"Ah. Then that was the only sentinel there?"  
  
"Yes. I didn't sense anyone else. There wasn't a guide present, either." His brain did some furious replay of the scene. "A gun, maybe." He definitely saw a strange one, though he didn't realize Kunimi had been hit, or even scraped by the shrapnel.  
  
Iwaizumi's brows furrowed. "A sentinel coming to battle without a guide?"  
  
Kageyama shrugged. "As I said, that wasn't strong enough to be a threat, even if a rampage occurred. And quite a lot of sentinels go to battle alone- then return to their guides." _Although it won't happen to Kunimi, ever._  
  
"All right." Irihata looked unsure, but he straightened up, gesturing for Kageyama to come with him. "Let's continue this conversation somewhere else."  
  
"I need to _stay close-_ "  
  
"I have an empty office in the medical ward. Although you'll need to promise me that you won't barge into his surgery."  
  
His voice eased a bit. "I won't."  
  
The aged advisor and the young guide disappeared down the corridors. Oikawa watched them as the sound of their footsteps faded away into silence. His sentinel poked him in the ribs after a while.  
  
"Come on. We should go back to our suite."  
  
"Iwa-chan's that impatient?"  
  
Iwaizumi hit his partner over the head, ignoring his yelp.  
  
"Just how delusional are you?"  
  
"I don't really know if Iwa-chan can actually call _me_ delusional~"  
  
"Shut up. Moronkawa."  
  
Oikawa pouted at the misuse- again- of his name. "Honestly, what's wrong with my given name?"  
  
"It doesn't reflect your personality."  
  
"Shame. I should have it changed to Oi-kira or something. Sparkles, it suits me, doesn't it?"  
  
"It doesn't."   
  
" _Iwa-chaaaaan_ , I'm wounded by your words!"  
  
"Shut up." Iwaizumi repeated, eyes glimmering with amusement. He was one of the few people who would ever see the sight- the youngest leader in the history of Aobajohsai, moaning in fake heartache.  
  
He secretly enjoyed being one of those people.  
  
"Did you think of what to write in the report?"  
  
Oikawa stopped twisting and clutching the front of his shirt, right over his heart. "I've planned it out roughly. Did you notice anything weird? I didn't."  
  
"I didn't, either." Even if he did and Oikawa noted nothing, Iwaizumi would have said his partner was probably right. His eye was sharp- in matters of other people, whether it be relationships, abilities, or physical states, Oikawa managed to catch everything out of the ordinary. That was the skill needed to be a leader. That was the skill that made him such a - Iwaizumi recoiled mentally at the thought, then admitted to himself- a great leader.  
  
"Oooookay. Then it'll take less then an hour."  
  
"You're going to complain every second while you're writing."  
  
Oikawa smiled. "Iwa-chan knows me too well!"  
  
Iwaizumi cut his words. "You don't have to keep torturing yourself."  
  
Their footsteps echoed down the empty hall. Both light, in a pair of simple boots.  
  
"I'm not. I'm just taking notes."  
  
"You hate him."  
  
"I don't hate him. He's such a cute kouhai."  
  
"Well, you hate writing about him so much. No, you even hate _thinking_ about him."  
  
Oikawa stayed silent. Iwaizumi didn't force him to get the answer he refused to give. He probably knew it already, anyway. His job was simply to remind him of that.  
  
The guide broke the silence. "I'm supposed to be the one who takes care of you, not the other way around."  
  
"You're doing a shit job of that."  
  
_I shouldn't have said it like that._ Iwaizumi realized how it sounded only after he spoke the words.  
  
"No, what I mean is that- you- that you need some help- someone who can help- no, no, fuck this shit. That you," Iwaizumi took in a breath. "you need to feel less responsible for everything that happens to you. And people around you in a five-mile radius. They're not all in your area of responsibility even if you're the leader of Aobajohsai, dammit!"  
  
Oikawa stared.   
  
The sentinel felt heat rush up to his face, a step too late. Far too late. Oikawa's voice morphed into syrup, sickly and heavy, ladened with sweetness, a little bit adoring.  
  
"Iwa-chan's being sweet~"  
  
"It's for my kouhais."  
  
"Yeah, sure~"  
  
Iwaizumi sighed, giving up. "I'm serious, Oikawa."  
  
"Don't be." The guide turned his head to face the hallway they were walking down.  
  
"You've been lashing out. Not much," he added at the start of a jerk in his partner's neck muscle, "but definitely enough to be noticed. I really don't think you should go on."  
  
"Iwa-chan, if I stop watching him, then who will?"  
  
"There's-" _Managers. Caretakers. Mentors who are supposed to take care of him, but won't._ "Kunimi." He managed to say.  
  
"Tobio-chan is Kunimi-chan's guide, not the other way around. He's Tobio-chan's responsibility. Kunimi-chan might try to take care of him, but they can't turn it around completely." And he knew this conversation was over. They turned the last corner, steps slowing down, and finally stopping in front of the door to their rooms.  
  
Iwaizumi put his hand on the scanner first, the machine ending his reading with a metallic _beep_. Oikawa did the same just as Iwaizumi got out of his boots.  
  
"You know, Iwa-chan..."  
  
The sentinel turned and waited for his words. Oikawa's voice simply trailed off. His eyes glinted in the dark, with only the dim lights in the corner spreading thinly around the room. Irritated, Iwaizumi growled. "Speak up, you dolt."  
  
"Aren't you _tired_?" The guide drawled.  
  
Even as he leaped backwards, getting out of range, he felt his strength draining out. " _Fuck_. Oikawa, I fucking _told_ you not to-"  
  
"Come on, Iwa-chan. Let's _reeeeecharge_. _Ow_."  
  
Muttering curses under his breath, Iwaizumi cuffed him and grudgingly followed him back into their suite. "Recharge, huh."  
  
"Mm-hmm."  
  
"Why do I have a guide that drains me every time he wants to go to bed?"  
  
"Cause' you wanna fuck me."  
  
Iwaizumi pinned his partner's wrists on the white sheets. The sentinel's strength completely overwhelmed his guide. "You asked for this." He whispered.  
  
Oikawa's wide smile answered his every one of his threats.


End file.
